My covid Journey: ICU was a Piece of Cake Compared to Now

 

Wow! This covid journey is hard. While the rest of the world resumes normal life, I stay away from humans (except for Dan and an occasional hug from my grandkids). Why? I've been vaccinated three times, survived cancer, survived severe covid, yet here I sit. Me and many others with blood cancer.

September is blood cancer awareness month. So, I am making my readers aware of the complications of blood cancer, especially those with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (cll), and our struggle to avoid covid.

 The struggle is real because:

1. Cll patients are at the highest of high risk to be infected with covid. If covid is in the air (and it is) we'll catch it. I did, last October. Today, I still need an oxygen tube when I sleep. Forty percent of my lungs are filled with scar tissue. The jury is still out about covid damage to other organs. No, covid is not just like the flu!

2. Cll patients are at the highest of high risk to suffer severe covid, hospitalization, ICU, and death. I didn't avoid the first three, but God chose life for me. Now, I wait for wisdom from Him how to live each day in victory and praise to Him. 

3. The vaccine often does not produce antibodies in cll patients. After my first vaccine, I had zero antibodies. My second vaccine reaped 53. No one seems to know what a normal antibody reading is, but I heard as many as 40,000. Fifty-three left me happy, but not thrilled and not safe. We are waiting for the results of my third vaccine and praying it boosts my antibodies.

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you to my God Who leads me along the paths of still waters on bike rides, hikes, and golf outings with my dear husband. Dan makes every day a fun adventure as we explore the big outdoors and refrain from crowds. Oh, but I do miss my church. 

My antibodies aren't running over, but my cup runneth over. I am so thankful for the love I know from my Lord, my husband, my children and grandchildren, and many friends. You have been the best. 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters, 

He restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23

I pray you have many splashes of serenity in your day,

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month

I chuckled when I learned September was Blood Cancer Awareness month. Believe me, those of us with blood cancer are very aware — not just in September — but every moment of our lives. We are aware each time we see lymph nodes swollen on our necks or feel them in our groin or under our arms, when an ugly bruise appears and stays for  months, at every tiny mosquito bite that doesn't heal, when a miniscule paper cut bleeds and bleeds and bleeds, and every sneeze threatens to lead to pneumonia and death. We are aware when the night-time pains shoot through our bones. We are aware as we fight cancer's attack of our bodies and satan's attack of our minds.

We are aware.

Are you aware:

According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in the United States in 2019 approximately

 every three minutes one person is diagnosed with blood cancer,

176,200 people are expected to be diagnosed with blood cancer,

ten percent of new cancer cases diagnoses will be blood cancer,

1,3999,180 people are living with blood cancer,

Approximately every nine minutes someone dies of blood cancer,

156 people die each day from blood cancer,

six people die each hour,

56,770 people will die this year,

9.4 percent of cancer deaths this year will be from blood cancer.

I thank God  and prayers, and cancer research that with treatment and a daily targeted therapy pill, most of the symptoms I experienced in the first paragraph are gone. I now live a healthy and happy life. Thank you for your prayers for me. Please keep praying for all cancer patients every day and month of the year. They suffer. They endure. They conquer thanks to your prayers.

My cancer care costs approximately $350,000 a year. Thanks to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other grants, I am not hit with that financial burden. Won't you consider donating for cancer research and funding for grants to help patients like me? You can donate at www.lls.org.  Thank you. 

I was thinking of the money spent on Halloween candy. Perhaps giving the same amount  to www.lls.org will free children with leukemia from the fright of cancer.

To encourage cancer patients, I share the lessons God taught me on my cancer journey in my book Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo: A Hopeful Response to a Hard Reality. Do you know a cancer patient who needs encouraged? Available on this website, Amazon, and Walmart.

Splashes of Serenity to all my fellow cancer warriors and thank you again to all who prayed for my healing. God heard. God healed!  Praise the Lord!!!